California and IBM Partner on CalCloud

The California Department of Technology and IBM have partnered to launch CalCloud, a new technology model powered by cloud computing to build and deliver government services and savings. The partnership is essentially a high-tech version of a P3, suitable for the home of Silicon Valley. The offering is also notable as IBM makes a renewed push into cloud services in an effort to make up for lackluster performance in some of its other, older business lines.

The platform, now available to municipalities and all state and local government agencies on a subscription basis, is the first of its kind to be implemented in the United States at the state level.

Through CalCloud, the California Department of Technology is providing tools that offer access to IT services at the rapid pace while minimizing upfront capital investment and controlling financial risk. The effort is somewhat similar to other cloud platform providers – offering the means to stand up applications and run hybrid environments at a rapid pace, alongside a modern twist on the pooled resources model of data centers of yore.

More than 20 state departments have already requested IT services through CalCloud.

As part of this public-private partnership, IBM is supplying and managing the infrastructure, while the California Department of Technology will manage all other aspects of the service offering. Additionally, IBM will work closely with the state to transfer essential knowledge and best practices in security and systems integration to the Department of Technology.

CalCloud is designed to allow around the clock access to a shared pool of easily configurable resources including compute, storage, network and disaster recovery services. CalCloud meets stringent security standards based on National Institute of Standards (NIST) for cloud based services and FedRAMP.